Indian Businesses Score Higher for AI Readiness than UK & US Peers

PEAK, an Artificial Intelligence company, has released its Decision Intelligence Maturity Index, an extensive benchmarking report looking at the commercial AI readiness of firms in India, UK and the US.

Decision Intelligence (DI) is the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to commercial decision-making. Most businesses will adopt the technology in this manner because it provides benefits across an organisation and is not limited to one department or operation. According to Peak’s Decision Intelligence Maturity Index, Indian businesses are leading the way in commercial AI adoption, routinely outperforming counterparts in both the US and the UK. While the United States was an early leader in AI, with 28 percent of US businesses adopting the technology over six years ago – compared to 25 percent in India and 20 percent in the United Kingdom – India is now the more mature market in terms of leveraging AI. The average Indian business scores 64 (out of 100) on Peak’s Decision Intelligence maturity scale, while the US charts 52 and the UK just 44. Data governance and internal communication are key differentiators for Indian businesses.

The research, conducted in partnership with the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), finds a number of factors contributing to this, among them data literacy – which is higher in Indian businesses. Junior employees (those from middle management and down) are far more likely to rely on data than counterparts in the US and UK, with 98 percent of Indian junior staff saying they had performed data analysis at least once in their current roles, compared to 81 percent in the US and 64 percent in the UK.

The report also discusses how businesses structure data teams and how important that choice is for successful AI adoption. increased maturity Indian businesses follow a different path than their peers in the US and the UK, favouring a decentralised approach, with the majority (33 percent) embedding data practitioners in commercial teams to assist with analysis, whereas most US (30 percent) and UK (25 percent) businesses have a centralised data team. In addition, 20 percent of employees in India have temporarily substituted a data expert into a team when needed, compared to 13 percent in the US and 14 percent in the UK.

Richard Potter, Co-founder and CEO, Peak, said, “India has already overtaken the UK to become the fifth largest economy in the world, and there’s clear signs that its growth won’t stop there. The US and UK have lost ground in the global AI race too, with India claiming the top spot at a time when Western countries are facing increasing geopolitical uncertainty.”

Atul Sharma, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Peak, said, “Organisations in India reached maturity behind many of their Western counterparts; this meant we started from a more advanced technology baseline, and haven’t faced the same implementation delays caused by legacy tech that we’ve seen in the UK and US. But maturity goes well beyond the capabilities of the modern tech stack, and it’s their people that really set Indian businesses up for success with AI.”

Peak’s DI Maturity Index examines a variety of factors, both technical and non-technical, that correlate with AI readiness. There is evidence that Indian businesses are better at communicating their AI plans; only 2 percent of Indian workers were unsure if their company used AI, compared to 21 percent in the UK and 18 percent in the US. As a result of this, as well as higher data literacy among Indian workers, there is a better understanding of what AI can accomplish, which translates into broader support for the technology among end users. When asked whether they expected AI to have a positive or negative impact on worker wellbeing in their sector over the next five years, 78 percent of junior staff in India said yes. By contrast, only 47 percent of those in the US thought AI would have a positive impact on worker wellbeing in their industry, and just 26 percent of those in the UK said the same.